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Re: Correct Usage of Articles

]One of the most difficult and enduring problems in English is articles usage. We could not hope to cover the topic in one thread. Have a look at 'Similar Threads' at the bottom of this page, then come back with specific questions.

Re: Correct Usage of Articles

"an" and "a" are the same except "an" is used when the noun begins with a vowel. e.g an accident, an eclipse, an institute.

Note: We say an hour, an hotel but we write it with an "a" - a "h" followed by a vowel.

So how do we know when to use a/an or the?
Well we use "the" when we know specifically which item (noun) were are talking about.
Imagine you are eating with some friends or family and you can't reach something on the table. You say:
"Can you pass me the water". Now there is only one jug of water on the table so you can only be referring to that one therefore you use "the".
However, now you need a napkin and there is a pile of them on the table so you say "Can you pass me a napkin".

Re: Correct Usage of Articles

"an" and "a" are the same except "an" is used when the noun begins with a vowel. e.g an accident, an eclipse, an institute.

This is not correct- it's about whether the word after it begins with a vowel sound:

An egg
but
A European

An umbrella
but
A university

Also note:
An MA
A URL

And it's triggered by the word coming after it, so it doesn't have to be a noun:

A student (noun)
but
An average student (adjective + noun)
An extremely good student (adverb + adjective + noun)

And this "rule":

Originally Posted by The Online English Class

We say an hour, an hotel but we write it with an "a"

According to you, we would write a hour, which is wrong. We write an hour. Some people use an historic..., and plenty of those who do pronounce the /h/. There are various possibilities with h, but teaching people to write a hour is not one of them in my book- this would be marked wrong in an English language exam.

And how about humorous? According to you, we'd say an humorous and write a humorous. If you did try to make the h silent, you'd have /j/ at the beginning rather than /hj/, so even dropping the h, your theory on the pronunciation still breaks down.

Re: Correct Usage of Articles

I agree with Fivejedjon that article usage is a tricky area of the language. My edition of Practical English Usage dedicates 15 pages to the articles, and they crop up on many other pages.

Hello, Tdol.

Could you please further expand on this one?

I have always believed that "the cinema" is used when there's only one cinema in the city or both the speaker and listener have a habit of going to a specific one. Otherwise, "a cinema" should be used.

Then, after reading your comments, it suddenly occurred to me that I can't remember reading "a cinema" in such a context.

Maybe it's just that I haven't read enough or have a bad memory. Or perhaps this usage has already been set, as in the case of "all of a sudden"?